Analysis of the behaviors related to road traffic injuries among pupils in four primary schools in Ningbo City

Objective This investigation was conducted to learn the behaviors related to road traffic injuries among pupils for the prevention and control of pupils' RTIs. Methods Two primary schools were sampled by stratified sampling respectively in rural and urban areas, and four classes from Grade Two to Six were selected for the survey in each school. All pupils in the selected classes were regarded as the respondents in the survey. Results A total of 2921 pupils were involved in the questionnaire survey. Most of surveyed pupils went to school on foot (46.0%). In the period of 30 days before the survey, 2.9% of them had skateboarded or roller-skated on the road, 2.2% had played and frolicked in the street, 5.8% had jumped a traffic signal lamp, and 7.1% admitted that they frequently did not take the zebra crossing when crossing the street. The survey also showed that 56.4% of the respondents frequently failed in fastening seat belt when seated in the car. The proportion of juniors who did not take the zebra crossing when crossing the street was significantly higher than that of seniors. The proportion of boys was significantly higher than that of girls in all risk behaviors except for failing in fastening seat belt when seated in the car. The top-two reasons for violating the traffic rules among pupils were be afraid of being late for class (47.9%) and just following the adults in crossing the street disorderly and recklessly (25.8%). Conclusion Health education should be further developed to reduce RTIs according to the characteristics of pupils' high risk behaviors.